The one adult love of his life, a woman named Velma, marries him but then leaves him soon afterward. The MacTeer family does not have light eyes. The French strategy was already set in millions of cubic feet of concrete. Frieda and Claudia are confused about what ruined means and worry that Frieda will become fat like the Maginot Line. The German Army, having reformulated their plans from a repeat of the First World War-era plan, became aware of and exploited this weak point in the French defensive front. When Joffre, Maginot and others conceived of the Maginot Line, Germany was under tight military restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. the air battle, which lasted the into the fall of 1940. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. They were also accommodated in complexes of wooden housing adjacent to each fortress, which were more comfortable than living inside, but were not expected to survive wartime bombardment. Frieda is not given the chance to step gradually into her sexual identity; instead, this identity is forced upon her by an adult. He has a gruff manner toward little Black girls. Her desire to disavow her daughter is proved when the white girl asks who the black children were and Mrs. Breedlove avoids answering her. She begins to become more religious, solidifying her identity as a martyr. Refine any search. It breaks and the girls run away, scared. Look like I just didn't care no more after that. "The Maginot Line would have done just fine against a German army with no tanks, airplanes or heavy artillery," says Kirchubel, all of which were banned inside Germany after WWI. She accepts everyone elses assumption that she is superior and is capable of both generosity and cruelty. 20% Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. How did this happen? 6. Their father's reaction, while violent, demonstrates the love he has for his family, which is contrasted later when Cholly rapes Pecola, simultaneously failing to protect her and acting as the aggressor. Telephone Network: This system connected every fortification in the Maginot Line, including bunkers, infantry and artillery fortresses, observation posts and shelters. She asks where "Polly" is, something that infuriates Claudia because even Pecola calls her own mother "Mrs. Curiously, Cholly's hatred is directed at Darlene. Did you know you can highlight text to take a note? She has not yet learned the self-hatred that plagues her peers. Youve successfully purchased a group discount. Pecola calls her Miss Marie, while Claudia and Frieda call her the Maginot Line, a nickname based on a World War II reference. Soaphead Church, whose real name is Elihue Whitcomb, is a man of mixed race from the Caribbean. The protagonist of the novel, an eleven-year-old Black girl who believes that she is ugly and that having blue eyes would make her beautiful. The officers' corps by no means acknowl-edged defeat. On 14 June 1940, the day Paris fell, the German 1st Army went over to the offensive in "Operation Tiger" and attacked the Maginot Line between St Avold and Saarbrcken. The British diplomat Sir Eric Phipps, who attended the conference, commented afterwards that: The London Conference was for the French 'man in the street' one long Calvary as he saw M. Herriot abandoning one by one the cherished possessions of French preponderance on the Reparations Commission, the right of sanctions in the event of German default, the economic occupation of the Ruhr, the French-Belgian railway Rgie, and finally, the military occupation of the Ruhr within a year. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. 15. The houses are sturdier, literally because they are better constructed than the houses in the black section of town, and symbolically as the families that live in them are more stable than the black families in the story. In 1968, when scouting locations for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, producer Harry Saltzman used his French contacts to gain permission to use portions of the Maginot Line as SPECTRE headquarters in the film. [10], The training was carried out at a fortress near the town of Bitche in Moselle in Lorraine, built in a military training area and so capable of live fire exercises. [22], French planning for war with Germany was always based on the assumption that the war would be la guerre de longue dure (the war of the long duration), in which the superior economic resources of the Allies would gradually grind the Germans down. The Maginot Line tells them Pecola is at her mother's workplace, explaining that Mrs. . [35] The idea was shelved. Look up his videos for some good strategy. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Complete your free account to request a guide. The rejection by Samson Fuller is a turning point in Cholly's life: "Abandoned in a junk heap by his mother, rejected for a crap game by his father, there was nothing more to lose." Struggling with distance learning? The heavy fortifications were designed to block the most direct line of attack into France and avoid repeating what happened in WWI, when the German forces occupied large swaths of the strategically important Alsace-Lorraine region. Many believe it to mean "sea of bitterness" or "sea of sorrow." However, some sources cite the alternative definitions of "rebellion," "wished-for child," and "mistress or lady of the sea." The name is borne in the Bible by the mother . Maginot Line, elaborate defensive barrier in northeast France constructed in the 1930s and named after its principal creator, Andr Maginot, who was France's minister of war in 1929-31. How do colorism and classism cause this status? It is the Maginot Line. Of the roughly 8.5 million French soldiers mobilized in 1914 to fight Germany and the other Central Powers, more than 6 million became casualties, either killed, wounded or declared missing during four years of grueling trench warfare. She loses the job because Cholly shows up at her workplace drunk. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. More scarring and memorable than any prior source in the novel, Pecolas own mother reinforces the message the girls have been receiving about the superiority of whites. The Germans then broke through the fortification line as defending French forces retreated southward. They fought for four years in WWI, but were done in a week in WWII." for a group? Why did the French build the line? There were places along the cable where dismounted soldiers could connect to the network. She learns that Mr. MacTeer has beaten up Mr. Henry and kicked him out of the house. The Maginot Line is a historic meme, a shrine to the failure of fixed defenses in the age of tanks and planes. The line wasn't Maginot's idea alone, but he helped push the ambitious, multimillion-franc project through parliament. [46] Historians have pointed to numerous reasons for the French defeat: faulty strategy and doctrine, dispersion of forces, the loss of command and control, poor communications, faulty intelligence that provided excessive German numbers, the slow nature of the French response to the German penetration of the Ardennes and a failure to understand the nature and speed of the German doctrine. The line, which was supposed to be fully extended further towards the west to avoid such an occurrence, was finally scaled back in response to demands from Belgium. Rosemary Villanucci Pecola is confused and talks about how nice Miss Marie (that is, the Maginot Line) and her friends are. The thinness of her companions is then connected to whisky (again based on something that they have heard their mother say, but which they misunderstood), and so they undertake a quest to procure whisky for Frieda. Toni Morrison and The Bluest Eye Background. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. With fresh memories of fighting and living in squalid, open-air trenches, the French spent a decade building a 300-mile (482-kilometer) series of underground fortifications that would be both impenetrable and comfortable to live in. Once the French forces left the Rhineland in 1930, this form of leverage with the Rhineland as collateral was no longer available to Paris, which from then on had to depend on Berlin's word that it would continue to abide by the terms of the Versailles and Locarno treaties, which stated that the Rhineland was to stay demilitarised forever. Pecola is about to use a wagon to bring the wash back to the Breedlove storefront, and Mrs. Breedlove says that the MacTeer sisters can walk back with her. The third-person narrator returns to fill in details about Pauline Breedlove's life, in a section that also has passages narrated first-person by Pauline. She becomes sole breadwinner while Sammy and Pecola are still young. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. The community knows Miss Marie as the Maginot Line. Pecolas mother, who believes that she is ugly; this belief has made her lonely and cold. The family does not pay Pauline the last bit of money they owe her. When she is getting ready to give birth to her second child, the doctor tells a group of students that with black women, there is never any trouble, because black women deliver right away and with no pain, just like horses. Based on France's experience with trench warfare during World War I, the massive Maginot Line was built in the run-up to World War II, after the Locarno Conference in 1925 gave rise to a fanciful and optimistic "Locarno spirit". Furious, Mrs. Breedlove sends the girls away and comforts the little white girl, who has begun to cry. Claudias mother, an authoritarian and sometimes callous woman who nonetheless steadfastly loves and protects her children. Pecola and the MacTeers leave the house in shame, laundry bag in tow, and as they leave they can hear Mrs. Breedlove fussing over the little white girl, who is crying. While most of the giant underground fortresses of the Maginot Line were abandoned or destroyed, you can visit a few of them, still in working order. Note that the narrative of Cholly's life lays a greater emphasis on Cholly's agency. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. He is fiercely protective of his daughters. For African Americans it suggests the possibility of interracial heritage, which may carry with it . Mr. MacTeer chased Mr. Henry off, beating him first and then firing a gun at him. 14. He was opposed by modernists such as Paul Reynaud and Charles de Gaulle, who favoured investment in armour and aircraft. In the interval between world wars, several European countries built elaborate permanent fortifications. She finds Frieda upstairs crying. They would be supplemented by reservists who lived in the local area and who could be quickly mobilised in an emergency. When The Maginot Line asks if the girls are looking for someone, Claudia explains they are looking for Pecola. Cholly knows nothing of love and little of faithfulness or family. [31] Stephen Ambrose wrote that in January 1945, "a part of the line was used for the purpose it had been designed for and showed what a superb fortification it was." Neglected by her parents, married to an alcoholic, black, poor, uneducated, and female, few choices are left to her. In contrast, Pecola spills blackish blueberries all over the floor, underlining the connection between blackness and mess. (one code per order). Music Producer, Rapper, Gamer, Artist , Just trying to make it through this thing called LIFE!! The Nazis knew that the heart of the Maginot Line was nearly impenetrable, so they feinted attacks along the heavily fortified border while they planned for their massive 1940 invasion of France through the Netherlands and Belgium. The blocks contained infrastructure such as power stations, independent ventilating systems, barracks and mess halls, kitchens, water storage and distribution systems, hoists, ammunition stores, workshops and spare parts and food stores. At the house where Polly Breedlove works, we see where Mrs. Breedlove gives most of her attention and love. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. The white neighborhood in which Mrs. Breedlove works is beautiful and well kept, demonstrating the connection between race and class. Pauline makes a little extra noise while delivering, to let the doctors know that she's no horseand she also points out to us that if you look into a mare's eyes, you realize that even a horse feels pain. In the wake of that catastrophic war, the French government vowed to protect its vulnerable northeast border with Germany from any future attacks. At fifteen, she meets Cholly; they marry and move far up to the North. The messages the girls hear about white superiority do not come only from the white media or light-skinned blacks like Geraldine. [18], France had an alliance with Belgium and with the states of the Cordon sanitaire, as the French alliance system in Eastern Europe was known. Pecolas fourteen-year-old brother, who copeswith his familys problems by running away fromhome. [53] New York Times headlined "Maginot Line in the Sky" in 2000[54] and "A New Maginot Line" in 2001. All these troops wore distinctive uniform insignia and considered themselves among the elite of the French Army. But does that mean that the Maginot Line was the colossal blunder that many historians have made it out to be? The Maginot Line was impervious to most forms of attack. Don't worry none.". 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